Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020)

Film and Plot Synopsis

In the third film of the series and a direct sequel to Train To Busan, Peninsula takes place four years after the zombie outbreak in South Korea. The United Nations has effectively quarantined South Korea from the rest of the world, stopping the outbreak from spreading. Former soldier Jung-seok and his brother-in-law Chul-min are hired by gangsters to run the blockade to return to South Korea to obtain $20 million in cash left behind in exchange for half the money. However, when they arrive on the peninsula, they are shocked to find a world of survivors who are willing to kill to get to freedom themselves.

‘Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula’ Movie Summary

The film opens as the zombie outbreak hits South Korea as depicted in the events of Train to Busan. South Korean Marine Corps Captain Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won) is driving like a madman to get his nephew Dong-hwan (Moon Woo-jin), his sister (Jang So-yeon), and his brother-in-law Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon) to a ship that will take them safely away. On the way, they encounter a couple with a young daughter who are stranded along the side of the road after their car breaks down. The mother looks desperate for assistance, but the father is bleeding and Jung-seok refuses to help them and drives on. They make it to the ship on time. After they are out to sea, however, one of the other passengers who was infected turns into a zombie. The zombie infects several others within the compartment, including Dong-hwan. Jung-seok pleads with his sister to leave her son, but the dutiful mother refuses. Jung-seok escapes and seals off the infected compartment, and then watches through the window as a hoard of zombies attack his sister. Jung-seok stops Chul-min from rushing into the compartment when he sees his wife and child being attacked. Armed soldiers arrive and dispatch the zombies on the ship. In the aftermath of the outbreak, the United Nations contain the situation by quarantining the entirety of South Korea.

Four years later, Jung-seok and Chul-min live as refugees in Hong Kong. They find themselves constantly facing the prejudices of the locals who believe that anyone from South Korea is infected. Jung-seok is angry at the world due to the guilt he carries over the death of his sister and nephew. He and Chul-min are recruited by Hong Kong mobsters for a mission that would require them to run the quarantine to retrieve a truck containing $20 million in United States currency. If successful, they would be given half the money to split with two other South Koreans. Jung-seok reluctantly agrees, mostly out of the guilt he feels for ruining Chul-min’s life.

The team arrives on the peninsula at night via a small inflatable boat. They find the streets mainly empty of any signs of life or the undead. Jung-seok does note a toppled building which contains thousands of zombies pressed up against the glass windows. They find the truck with the money fairly quickly, but they unfortunately cause a lot of noise when they must fight off the zombie driver of the truck. Zombies begin rushing towards the team and their vehicles. Unbeknownst to the team, their actions are being observed by two children in their own car – Joon (Lee Re) and Yu-jin (Lee Ye-won). Jung-seok uses his military skills to shoot several of the zombies, and the team successfully extricates itself from the area.

The team begins heading back to Incheon Port in order to use their satellite phones to call for extraction from the peninsula. However, the team is ambushed by a survivor’s militia group known as Unit 631. The militia members use light to attract more zombies towards the team’s vehicles which ultimately results in the team crashing both of their vehicles. Jung-seok is thrown clear from the truck while Chul-min hides in the back of the truck with the money. The other two members are killed, one of them by Unit 631 leader Sergeant Hwang (Kim Do-yoon), a slightly unstable militia member. A recovering Jung-seok is almost overtaken by zombies when he is suddenly saved by Joon and Yu-jin. The girls drive through town while plowing through zombies. They take Jung-seok back to their hideout, where Jung-seok meets the girls’ grandfather, Elder Kim (Kwon Hae-hyo), and the girls’ mother Min-jung (Lee Jung-hyun). Jung-seok recognizes Min-jung as the mother along the side of the road that he refused to help four years prior.

At the same time, Hwang and Unit 631 take the truck back to their compound. They discover Chul-min in the back of the truck and decide to make him participate in a two-minute survival game between unarmed prisoners and zombies that Unit 631 uses as a source of entertainment. The handicapped Private Kim (Kim Kyu-baek) discovers the money and the satellite phone in the back of the truck and reports both to his supervisor, Captain Seo (Koo Kyo-hwan). The suicidal Seo uses the phone to contact the gangsters who extend the offer that they made to Chul-min and Jung-seok to Seo. Seo and Kim plan to take the money to Incheon Port and get off the peninsula. They agree to keep the plan secret from any of the other members of Unit 631.

Meanwhile, Jung-seok tells Min-jung that the mobsters’ ship is at Incheon Port waiting to extract him and the money. Min-jung decides to help Jung-seok retrieve the money from Unit 631 in order for her and her family to finally escape the peninsula. Jung-seok confesses to not helping Min-jung four years prior. Min-jung informs him that he was not the only one to have denied her assistance, and that thirty other cars did not stop as well. That evening, an armed Jung-seok and Min-jung secretly break into Unit 631’s compound to steal the truck. While holding Private Kim at gunpoint, Jung-seok learns that Chul-min is still alive. Still carrying his guilt, Jung-seok goes off to save his friend, and interrupts a survival game to rescue him.

Jung-seok’s heroic actions unleash the zombies from the game loose within the Unit 631 compound. Jung-seok and Chul-min find themselves fighting off the zombie hoard and the militia at the same time. Chul-min saves Jung-seok from a zombie but exposes himself to a rifle shot from Hwang. Chul-min dies in Jung-seok’s arms. As Unit 631 begins to close in on Jung-seok, things begin to look dire. However, Min-jung drives the truck into the building to save Jung-seok after she fights off Captain Seo for the truck. The pair get out of the compound with the truck and begin driving towards Incheon Port. They find their path blocked by a zombie hoard and things begin to look hopeless. Suddenly, Joon, Yu-jin, and Elder Kim arrive and distract the zombies with their car which frees the truck.

The heroes continue on their way to the port. However, they are pursued by Sergeant Hwang and the Unit 631 forces. Jung-seok uses his weapon to defend the truck. He notices the building filled with zombies and shoots out the windows as the truck drives by. The zombies begin to pour out of the building onto Zwang and the Unit 631 forces. Unit 631 is wiped out. Jung-seok, Min-jung, and her family make it to the harbor, but Captain Seo reappears and crashes his car into Joon’s car. He pulls Joon out of the car and uses her as a hostage, demanding that Jung-seok and Min-jung drop their weapons and give him the truck. Yu-jin distracts Seo with one of her toy cars which frees Joon. However, Seo shoots and kills Elder Kim and wounds Min-jung in the leg.

Seo uses the group’s concern for Elder Kim to get in the truck and drives towards the docked gangster ship.
Once on board the ship, the gangsters betray Seo and shoot him, showing that they never had the intention to share the money with anyone. Seo’s lifeless body accidentally places the truck into reverse and the truck backs up and blocks the loading ramp from closing. A zombie hoard shoots the gap of the ramp and begins killing everyone on the ship. A short distance away, Jung-seok’s group observes everything that is happening and realizes they are trapped on the peninsula still.

Suddenly, a United Nations helicopter appears and lands further down on the dock. The injured Min-jung orders Jung-seok to repay his debt to her by ensuring her daughters make it safely to the helicopter. Injured and unable to keep ahead of the approaching zombies, Min-jung jumps into an abandoned vehicle and begins hitting the car horn to draw the attention of the zombies away from the helicopter and the children. Her plan is successful, and Jung-seok gets the girls to safety. However, the girls don’t want to leave their mother even though her car is surrounded by zombies. Jung-seok and the girls watch as Min-jung places the muzzle of the weapon under her chin to kill herself. Jung-seok remembers how he didn’t do everything that he could for his own family and goes back to save Min-jung. He kills several zombies and clears a path for Min-jung, who decides to try to fight for survival. The pair rush safely back to the U.N. helicopter, and everyone makes it off the peninsula alive.